Gypseh: Ik houd van Nederland!! (I love the Netherlands!)

I'm not afraid to admit it......I absolutely love the Netherlands! And I love everything about it - the land, the people, the language, the weather, the food (sometimes :p), and the history! I am seriously going to live there one day...not even joking!

(Shots from inside the airplane)

Though most people will not realize it, Holland is a really cool country. Here are some facts that you may not know about the Netherlands:

Did you know...

- That Amsterdam is entirely built on platforms, with huge stakes driven into the ground? Central station has 6000 of them keeping it up.

- The Dutch are the tallest people in the world? (I'm serious, their toilets are so tall, my toes barely touched the ground...and I'm 5'5!) The average height for a guy is 6'2, and the average height for a girl is 5'7!

- The Netherlands has the highest population density (493 inhabitants per square km - water excluded) of any European country with over 1 million inhabitants?

- That New York City started as Dutch colony called New Amsterdam?

- That a 2007 UNICEF report on child well-being in rich countries ranked the Netherlands as the best country for children to live in because of its low crime rate?

- The Netherlands actually has two capitals? Amsterdam and the Hague.

- The microscope, the telescope, pendulum clock and the mercury thermometer are all 16th or 17th century Dutch inventions.

- There are 1180 windmills in the Netherlands.

- That IKEA: international home products retailer is a company owned by Holland? (founded in Sweden but headquartered in Holland)

- Almost every Dutch person has a bicycle and there are twice as many bikes as cars?

- Amsterdam boasts more museums of any city in the world, measured per square meters. With over 70 major well known museums in the Netherlands of which over 40 are in Amsterdam?

- The Dutch are the world experts on keeping back the water / sea from over running their country and turning it into another Atlantis. During the hurricane Katrina disaster it was the Dutch the USA government turned to for help on how to repair the levies in New Orleans.

- Over 70% of the worlds bacon (poor pigs) comes from the Netherlands.

- About 30% of all Dutch babies are born at home?
- People in Holland eat raw herring with onions on top? (Yuck!)
- You'll find a bunch of flowers in almost every Dutch living room?

- When Dutch schoolchildren pass their exams, they hang a Dutch flag and a school
bag outside their homes? (It's true! I saw some!) -->

I've also had countless memories there! From being snapped at by a Spanish speaking person for listening in on his conversation, to accidentally bumping into a one armed guy in a castle...I had such a blast! (Even though both of those moments were ridiculously awkward...) :/

When I went, I arrived on a Sunday. Holland is seven hours ahead of our time, so we got there around 10/11ish in the morning, and it was still 3/4ish in the morning our time (talk about exhausting!)

Our good friend, Pekka picked us up at an airport and we went to visit Doorweth Castle (the place where I bumped into the poor guy.)

We ate dinner at Pekka and Lena's (and I tried french fries and mayonnaise for the first time (YUM!))

On Monday, we went to Amsterdam, which is about an hour away from where we were staying (a gorgeous city called Arnhem.)

In Amsterdam, we went on a few canal trips (one of the boats we were on broke down and we had an hour delay lol) did a little shopping and had lunch, and then finally went to the Anne Frank House which is, without a doubt, the best museum I have ever been too. World War II is my favorite piece of history to learn about and to stand in the place where Anne Frank lived and was taken away was breathtaking. (Also, here's a little World War II fact....we stayed in a historical city - Arnhem - which is the place where the Germans invaded the Netherlands. A huge battle went on there - look up "The Battle of Arnhem" on google, and you'll get quite a bit of information.)

(The picture on the left is where we waited for the train to Amsterdam to come...and the picture on the right is Central Station - there was a fact given about that up above.)

(The first picture is the canal we were in that broke down lol. As soon as they opened the roof, it came and poured on us. The second picture is just a sign that kind of humored me, but also reminded me to hold onto my handbag a little tighter.)

(I tried taking a lot of photos of people in Amsterdam, and this was one of my best.)

(These pictures were both taken by the Anne Frank House - the one on the right is the actual house - and the one on the left was another picture of people in Amsterdam.)

On Tuesday, we shopped in Arnhem all day! It was so entertaining because there were so many unlimited shops to go to! I got to see a whole new part of Holland that day :)

(A lovely day to go shopping.)

(Our lunch menu and
the big shopping area -->)
(The pictures below me humored me. The last one, with the fake person under the umbrella...walking down the street, I thought that was a real person.
I had quite a shock when I realized it was a statue.)

(And of course I creep on people, as you see down below lol.)

The next day we went to Kroller Mueller, which houses the most Van Goh paintings in the world. We saw his most famous works as well as some by Pablo Picasso and other famous artists. It was a really cool experience! Also, usually you have to ride a bike for ten miles to get into the museum, but we got a guy to drive us down, so we didn't do all of the work (lazy, i know :p)

The day after that, I went to a war museum (based on the Battle of Arnhem and we hung out and shopped and stuff for the last couple of days.) SO much fun! :)